Heavenly Twin Lakes (Sky Lakes Wilderness) 06-Aug-2015

First it got real hot down here. Then we got heavily smoked by wildfires to the north and in California to the south. Then The LovedOne’s knee went blooey. While we were waiting for the doc to say she could put some weight on it, the air temperatures dropped (only 90F today!) and the winds started shifting the smoke around (still plenty of it though). To escape some of the smoke and work the knee a bit, we decided to hike in to the Sky Lakes Wilderness from the Cold Spring Trailhead via an excellent, almost level trail, that passes by some neat lakes.

This trailhead is graced with picnic tables, a pit toilet, a shelter, and a still-running spring!

The old shelter at Cold Spring Trailhead

The LovedOne was able to stroll along the easy trail without too much trouble (although the knee does ache).

Along the Cold Springs Trail

We reached the Heavenly Twin Lakes in under three miles – the southern one first,

Heavenly Twin Lake (south)

then the northern one. There was always a hint of smoke in the air but it wasn’t anywhere near as thick as it was down in the valley to the west. And, in the afternoon, the wind shifted to where we couldn’t even smell the smoke.

and back to the trailhead. This was just enough of a hike (7.3 miles round-trip; 400 feet of elevation gain) to work the knee but not too much. The Cold Spring Trailhead is readily accessible via a good gravel road off of Highway 140 and is one of the easiest ways to experience some of the lakes in this wilderness. 😀